Viewing page 59 of 80

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

47

Incidentally, the sheepdog's name was Pooch; maybe that helped to infuriate Dusky.

During this period, Mother was dividing her time among Erie, Chautauqua and Syracuse. I have no record of what specifically she did in 1941 but I'd assume she spent most of the fist half of the year with us, the summer at Unitarian House in Chautauqua, and most of the autumn in Syracuse at the Onondaga Hotel. I know that she returned to visit us soon after Pearl Harbor In December. Her health wasn't too good but she got around pretty well just the same. She had angina just as her father before her and as I do now but as I look back, my impression is that it didn't affect her life style a great deal. Moreover, while she died shortly before she became 78, the cause of her death was basically the intestinal blockage she had from a collapsed cecum rather than the angina condition; finally her heart gave up the struggle but today I believe they would have operated on her GI tract problem and she might well have lived several years more. She was extremely nervous and a great worrier and imaginer of non-existent difficulties, which didn't favor her angina condition so I'd judge that she was inherently pretty tough to have lasted as long as she did and with few setbacks of any importance.

Willie's father, the Colonel, normally spent a month with us in the summer and I think he did in 1941. He was in good health at the time as I recall and still active in his business; in fact, it was his business that prevented him from spending more time with us and no matter how much we urged him, he always stoutly refused to remain with us for more than that month. I realize also that he felt a strong obligation to his brother, Walter, in this matter. We loved to have the Colonel visit us. He was usually a lot of fun and we hated to see him leave. He enjoyed a little tippling and when he arrived, he'd always open his suitcase immediately and present us with a quart of Kentucky bourbon, which we would soon uncork and have a reunion highball. He loved the children very much and he'd go out to the Peninsula with all of us and even go in the water sometimes although I don't think he was too keen about that. There was a little bar named Cunningham's at 10th and Weschler where he and I would go occasionally in the evening for a couple of beers. But the really big beer outings were at Waldameer Park where we'd go in the evening to the German beer garden presided over by Smiling Fritz and order beer and enjoy the show, which was fantastically good for a relatively small time operation. Fritz and "Miss Mildred" had beautiful voices and there was a waiters chorus and a small German band and they all were superb. We'd get a gang together and go out there and settle arounda big table for the evening and we all loved it, particularly the Colonel. One of the waters had a specialty of drinking a pitcher of beer in ten seconds; he'd simply open his mouth and pour it in without